Everyday skills
How babies and young children start to eat and drink, dress, use the potty and sleep.
When they usually start
Each bar shows the ages when most children in the studies started. Children vary a lot. Tap a milestone to read more.
- Feeding themselves with their fingers. Typical: about 8½ to 9 months. The spread of ages hasn't been measured yet.
- Drinking from a cup. Typical: about 13 months. The spread of ages hasn't been measured yet.
- Taking clothes off. Typical: about 15 months. The spread of ages hasn't been measured yet.
- Putting clothes on. Typical: about 2½ years. The spread of ages hasn't been measured yet.
- Using the toilet in the day. Typical: about 2½ to 3½ years. The spread of ages hasn't been measured yet.
- Staying dry at night. Typical: about 3 to 4 years. The spread of ages hasn't been measured yet.
- Giving up daytime naps. Most children: about 2 to 5 years; typical: about 3½ years
Typical age only: studies haven't yet measured how widely the ages spread.
Eating and drinking
- Feeding themselves with their fingersMost babies start feeding themselves with their fingers at around 8½ to 9 months. A large study in four countries and a smaller US study found similar ages.
- Drinking from a cupIn a large study in four countries, about half of children drank from a cup by about 13 months, but the age varied a lot between countries, from under 9 months to over 16.
Dressing
- Taking clothes offIn a large study in four countries, about half of children could take off a piece of clothing by about 15 months, but the age varied hugely between countries, from about 9 months to about 2 years.
- Putting clothes onPutting some clothes on, like a jacket or skirt, usually comes well after taking them off. In a large study in four countries, about half of children did so by about 2½ years.
Toileting
- Using the toilet in the dayMost children are out of nappies during the day somewhere between about 2½ and 3½ years, but the age differs a lot between countries, families and generations. In some communities, babies are trained in their first year.
- Staying dry at nightStaying dry at night usually comes after being dry during the day, often between about 3 and 4 years. Wetting the bed sometimes is still common at school age: about 3 in 10 children at 4½ and about 1 in 10 at 9½.
Sleep
- Giving up daytime napsMost children stop napping somewhere between about 3 and 5 years. Very few stop before 2, about a third have stopped by 3, more than half by 4 and about 8 in 10 by 5, though studies vary a lot.
- Sleeping through the nightMany babies first sleep a long stretch at night, like midnight to 5am, by about 3 months, but waking at night stays common and normal through the first year. In one study, about 1 in 7 babies had still never slept from midnight to 5am at 12 months.
Researchers have their own name for this area: Adaptive (self-care). The sections on this page follow the way studies usually group these skills:
- Eating and drinking (Feeding)
- Dressing (Dressing)
- Toileting (Toileting)
- Sleep (Sleep)